Christ Being Adored on Mount of Beatitudes

Perpetual Adoration Chapel Opens

April 03, 2008
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KORAZIM, Israel, APRIL 3, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Christ in the Eucharist will be perpetually adored on the mountain where he preached the Beatitudes, thanks to an adoration monastery built next to a retreat center entrusted to the Neocatechumenal Way.

The monastery beside the Domus Galilaeae International Center was inaugurated March 29, in a gathering of 170 bishops and key figures from the Catholic lay Neocatechumenate.

The monastery is made up of 23 cells surrounding a circular chapel where the Blessed Sacrament is exposed. On the roof there is a sculpture by Kiko Argüello, the founder of the Neocatechumenal Way, which depicts Jesus and the Twelve Apostles during the preaching of the Sermon on the Mount.

The monastery is also linked to Blessed Charles de Foucauld, founder of the Little Brothers, who almost a century ago, while in Nazareth, wished for a place that would enable perpetual adoration on the mountain where Christ preached. He envisioned a monastic community that would be devoted to imitating the hidden life of Jesus in Nazareth.

As a concrete sign of communion with the founder of the Little Brothers, a relic of Blessed Charles de Foucauld is placed under the altar of the circular chapel.

The inauguration was presided over by the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Michel Sabbah, accompanied by other bishops of different rites; by Franciscan Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Custos of the Holy Land; by the apostolic nuncio to the region, Archbishop Antonio Franco; and by civil authorities of the area.